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Monday, April 23, 2012

For some reason I want to remember today*. There have been so many little things that make up a typical day with the kids and I have the strongest inclination to record them.

I decided today was the day to introduce my 20 month old to cooking the house speciality: chocolate chip pancakes.

I turned my back for five minutes to book some cheap flights for my Mum....turns out that after putting flour in the bowl my presence became unnecessary. My older daughter measured out the ingredients and emphatically mixed them together. Some of the densest, most leaden pancakes I've ever seen resulted. They got eaten.

My oldest daughter went through the calendar today, adding apostrophes and 's' on all the birthdays. Apparently just writing a name on the date is insufficient. A small part of me is quite glad to have produced a budding grammar Nazi, another part is irked at being corrected.

At breakfast I got told highlights from last night's dinner out: "the Ice-cream was smoking without even a cigarette!" The restaurant uses dry ice on kid's desserts.

Creating a floor bed after playing the deliciously risky 'stair bed' game with her friend. Gravely informing me that she and her friend would have a sleepover when they were both six (an age of great importance).

The baby has come down sick over the course of the day. She slept for 2.5 hours, a record. I had enough time to eat lunch, mop the floors, put the garden to bed for the winter, have and get over a migraine, tidy the kitchen and discuss the state of the world with my neighbour. I'm not glad she is sick but getting so much work out of the way was great!

I realised my daughter has a standard order at the library: two fairy books, a Maori legend and a science DVD.

*By today I mean a day last week. Our family spent the entire holidays sick so this post was drafted some day last week!

Monday, April 9, 2012

Each year we host an Easter lunch for those of our friends who don't have better plans. It is quite a flexible affair - the invitation goes out widely and the number of attendees varies. One year we had four guests, last year every single person I invited attended (it was a tight fit). This year we had a respectable turnout of fourteen guests.

Last year we made 'chipoussil' (quail inside a poussin inside a chicken). We were concerned that it would be difficult to top that but then a friend suggested a theme - Kiwiana/ old recipes. She particularly wanted to try blancmange and flummery. This seemed like a good idea and we then moved the lunch to dinner so that young children could nap and then come for an early dinner. I actually forgot that we were doing that, and in my head everyone was coming for lunch. So everything was prepared and ready for 11.30am! I very sheepishly informed my husband of the delay!

It was a fun and joyful day. Everyone rose to the occasion - some of the dishes are pictured below. My favourite memories are:

trying to explain to my Chinese New Zealander husband the purpose of devilled eggs;

the children pulling about my daughter's bed to jump on the mattress, make it 'snow' by sprinkling stickers (and then toys) over the stair rail;

working out that the terrine would taste nicer if it was hot, contained flavouring spices and had other ingredients (we followed a recipe from the seventies that was a little stodgy);

making a turducken style terrine would be fun;

whatever happened to the legs of the fifth chick sitting on top of the beautiful sponge cake

and finally, having two sleepy cuddles with a very beautiful eight week old baby.